Re: (Separable) suffixes?

On 2/22/07, MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com <MorphemeAddict@...> wrote:
> In a message dated 2/22/2007 4:34:00 AM Central Standard Time,
> philip.newton@GMAIL.COM writes:
>
> > Word spacing is an artefact of orthography. Why shouldn't the parts of
> > English phrasal verbs (or whatever they were called again) that look
> > like prepositions be considered verb suffixes?
>
> Because they don't necessarily follow the verb.  In other words, they don't
> act like other morphemes that are considered to suffixes.
Hm, this may be a matter of definition.

The thread started, as I recall, with talk of "separable prefixes" as
in German or Hungarian -- which aren't necessarily connected to the
verb, either. "Er machte das Licht vorsichtig aus" contains an
inflected form of the verb "ausmachen", where "aus-" is considered a
prefix even though in the given sentence, it's neither affixed to the
verb nor even before it.

My point was that a form in English could be equally validly
considered a suffix, even when it is neither affixed to the form _in a
given situation_ nor, perhaps, necessarily even after it, as long as
in some "ideal" form, it's suffixed.

Or would you say that "aus-" in "ausmachen" is not a prefix since it
doesn't "act like other morphemes that are considered to [be
prefixes]"?

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

Replies